The goal of this project is to relate physiological and psychoacoustical measures of responses to temporal envelope fluctuations. Behaviorally-relevant sounds, such as speech, contain many amplitude-modulated features, but the neural mechanisms that underlie their perception remain unclear. This proposed research will critically test both existing and novel encoding hypotheses using human psychophysics, awake rabbit physiology, and computational modeling of auditory processing. By using the same type of stimulus in each of the three experimental paradigms, findings from one approach can be directly integrated into tests of the others. Audio-frequency stimuli that have been useful in determining the perceptual relevance of proposed decision variables will be translated into the modulation-frequency domain. One set of experiments will study the representation of sinusoidal modulation in the presence of an additional masking noise modulation. Masked-modulation detection thresholds have been measured psychophysically, and responses of inferior colliculus neurons will be obtained in matching stimulus conditions. Comparisons of competing model predictions will lend insight into cues used by the real system

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
1F31DC007268-01A1
Application #
6936812
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDC1-SRB-Y (52))
Program Officer
Sklare, Dan
Project Start
2005-01-01
Project End
2007-06-30
Budget Start
2005-01-01
Budget End
2005-12-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$28,515
Indirect Cost
Name
Syracuse University
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
002257350
City
Syracuse
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
13244
Wojtczak, Magdalena; Nelson, Paul C; Viemeister, Neal F et al. (2011) Forward masking in the amplitude-modulation domain for tone carriers: psychophysical results and physiological correlates. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 12:361-73
Nelson, Paul C; Carney, Laurel H (2007) Neural rate and timing cues for detection and discrimination of amplitude-modulated tones in the awake rabbit inferior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 97:522-39